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WWI Footage colourised by Peter Jackson

Not sure if our members outside the UK can see this, but Peter Jackson has been involved in a project to colorise film from WW1. At the same time he added a completely new soundtrack with some very extensive foley work.

I generally dislike colorized footage. I especially dislike colorized narrative films because there’s something completely different in the way black and white images effect you emotionally.

This, on the other hand, looks quite interesting. I hope the program is released on cable in the US so I can see how it has been put together. It is really important that younger generations learn and understand history, and unfortunately most of the school systems all over the world are presenting a very incomplete and highly politicized version of what really went on. I don’t know hardly anyone under 50 that has any appreciation of the struggle that the world went through to grant them the opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Far too many people think that absolutely anything they want is owed to them. Anything that can be done to make people appreciate the struggle for freedom is a good thing.

This, on the other hand, looks quite interesting. I hope the program is released on cable in the US so I can see how it has been put together. It is really important that younger generations learn and understand history, and unfortunately most of the school systems all over the world are presenting a very incomplete and highly politicized version of what really went on.

Bravo to Peter Jackson for adding color, sound, dirt and scratch removal, and in general revivifying these poignant images from the “war to end all wars."

Black & white motion picture lighting was and remains an accomplished art form, and it should be a crime to “colorize” black & white cinema for commercial gain.

But B&W newsreel footage from the frontlines of WWI, WWII, and other early 20th Century conflicts is another matter. Had color or sound film existed in 1914, surely these motion picture images of trench warfare would have been acquired with color and sound. But neither was then available (compact 16mm cameras and film loads were also a decade away), so it can’t be argued that the use of black & white sans audio was intentional, or in any way an esthetic choice. There existed but B&W, 35mm for the most part.

Jackson is merely endeavoring to restore what the early state of motion picture camera and sound technology denied combat camera operators in 1914.

I know film archivists get their knickers in a twist when they hear me make this argument in public, which I have done for decades. But I’ve filmed in a war zone. They haven’t.

Not sure if our members outside the UK can see this, but Peter Jackson has been involved in a project to colorise film from WW1. At the same time he added a completely new soundtrack with some very extensive foley work.

It’s a fair objection. THE ANDERSON PLATOON's grainy, handheld 16mm B&W adds undeniable graphic power to the film’s depiction of grim combat conditions endured by an American platoon fighting in Vietnam in 1966. But I would argue that director Pierre Schoendoerffer made a choice to shoot 16mm B&W, just as he made a choice to record very little sync sound (he relied mostly on voiceover narration and artfully edited wild sound). In 1966 he could easily have shot 16mm Ektachrome or Kodachrome, just as he could have recorded extensive sync sound, as did his Vérité and Direct Cinema contemporaries.

So, no, ANDERSON PLATOON, a work of film art, the result of a series of esthetic choices, should never be colorized.

I think Jeff knows that in 1998 I programmed THE ANDERSON PLATOON for the first edition of “docfest,” the New York International Documentary Festival, held at the Director’s Guild. After a single airing in primetime by CBS in 1967, the French-made THE ANDERSON PLATOON won the 1968 Oscar for Best Documentary. (Yes indeed, a very different time.) At “docfest,” I paired it with another unforgettable TV documentary about Vietnam, MORELY SAFER’S VIETNAM, also broadcast in 1967, but shot in 16mm color with mostly sync sound.

IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG, from 1968, is a polemic comprising vintage film newsreel clips and interviews de Antonio elected to shoot in 16mm B&W. Again, a work of film art, a series of esthetic choices. Not a candidate for colorizing.

None of which undercuts my original point that early newsreel camera operators produced B&W images not by choice but technological constraint.

WWII combat cameramen from the U.S. Army, Army Airforce, and Marines didn’t all use Eyemos either. Quite a few used 16mm Filmos and shot Kodachrome, including the five Hollywood name directors on that ludicrous Netflix poster. Jeff may also know that at “docfest” in 1999, I devoted an entire session to WWII films shot in 16mm Kodachrome. I screened WITH THE MARINES AT TARAWA, which won the 1945 Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects (and caused a scandal in Congress, look it up) and William Wyler’s MEMPHIS BELLE. This was the first time MEMPHIS BELLE had been screened in New York City since its 1944 theatrical release.

Wherein lies a story. During a White House screening of BELLE, a visibly moved FDR offered Wyler a Camel, accepted a light in return, then turned to others in the room and said, “This has to be shown right away, everywhere.” The Air Force ordered 500 35mm Technicolor prints, and Paramount distributed them free to theaters across the country. As a result, MEMPHIS BELLE remains one of the most widely-distributed theatrical documentaries ever, and the only film ever reviewed on the front page of The New York Times. Fittingly, at the New York Film Festival currently underway, a newly restored 4K version of BELLE is being screened. If you don’t believe that 16mm Kodachrome uniquely withstands the test of time, check out these examples of before & after 4K scanning of MEMPHIS BELLE.

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